The strike is poorly done because it's only for a day. A day is nothing to people who have bottomless resources. It will take weeks & months, not days. It’s an empty threat.
People need time, but I haven't seen any information from these organizers (on their website or otherwise) about long term plans. I also found zero info on resources or safety nets for the people who will ultimately be affected via job termination.
This isn’t a movie. People are talking about production disruption, roadway blockage, walkouts, taking hits out on officials, burning it all down. Understand that if it’s gotten that bad, a lot of people have already died & will continue to die. You DO NOT want this.
I will explain this here, once, as Black, Brown & Indigenous women have been educating for decades, but only now do people want to listen. I'm tired.
Step 1:
Find 9 intelligent people in your immediate neighborhood, and form a club of 10 people including you.
A good list of skills to start with are: party/event planner, PTO/PTA president, bank manager/president, civil rights/constitutional rights attorney, data analyst, venue owner, brand strategist/web & social development & an accountant.
NOTE: If you absolutely cannot find anyone in your community, reach out online! Go to your local library & educate yourself! Join another community elsewhere!
EXTRA NOTE: Before any a ya’ll come up in here with ya “I don’t have any skills” nonsense: YES. YOU. DO. Millennials & Gen Z are the MOST literate & educated generation in HISTORY. Get in where you fit in! Use your imagination!
Step 2:
Create a social media presence, start with Next-door & Facebook, so that you can post as a group in other groups.
Step 3:
Decide on due amounts. Everyone (because you will want to expand past the 10 original members) will either pay a base due, or be required to donate whatever they can afford. (50 cents is still money). Save this money, you will need it later. You're also going to look for sponsorship. Keep a record of the businesses that supported you & the ones that don't. You will use this information later. It helps people know where to/to not spend their money. (this is how you successfully boycott/strike without risking people's livelihoods).
Step 4:
Choose 2-3 people to attend EVERY. SINGLE. CITY COUNCIL/BOARD MEETING. You can rotate.
Step 5:
Have some of your people take notes on EACH COUNCIL/BOARD MEMBER in their own Google Doc during meetings. Take note of what they say & how they vote. Make sure you have saved backups off line & not in the cloud! Use a USB stick or some other storage system.
Step 6:
Have a member of your club who is a skilled orator speak on pre-written, well thought out, and concise talking points of interest to your group. This is the time to correct misinformation heard at the meeting, to point towards information & resources, and generally oppose rhetoric that we are fighting against.
Step 7:
Determine who your ELECTED judges are for your district (ELECTED NOT APPOINTED). Keep a Google doc for EACH ONE recording their judgment patterns. Be particular. Are they handing out harsher sentencing on women, Black people, Indigenous people, Brown people, disabled people, non-gender confirming people, etc. Are their sentencing patterns inconsistently weighed more heavily on members of marginalized groups? (Your group lawyer will know how to pull up past & present judgment records). REMEMBER TO SAVE OFFLINE!
Step 8:
When local elections come around, your group is going to take the info you've gathered & share it via motion graphics put to music that is easily shareable among the community. You are going to decide who in your group would be best fit to run as challengers in these elections.
Step 9:
Here's where that money you saved comes in. You’re going to spend that money on preparing your elected members for running. You're going to send them to speech classes, conferences on how to run successful campaigns, and you’re going to fund registrations, merch & advertising.
Step 10:
Your challengers are going to run against incumbents. Too long have we been voting for the SAME. DAMN. PEOPLE. It's stale, and it doesn't have to be.
You are going to do this for EVERY Election, from the school board all the way up to Congress. This is a PROVEN method from throughout history. It takes a loooong time, and it's not as flashy as marching in the streets or walking out of your job, but only looooong thought-out action has ever worked with few casualties to the oppressed. I know we're all ready to roll out the Monsieur Chop Chop but let me tell everyone what happened in France after they beheaded their government. Chaos. People went hungry, unclothed & unhoused. Innocent people were beheaded right after the guilty because there was a power vacuum that wouldn't be satisfied till much later. People let their anger & rage take over and it caused the deaths of so many who didn't deserve to die. Keep your cool. Vent if you need to. Cry if you need to. But KEEP. YOUR. COOL. Work together. Know who you can trust, make them earn it. Use encryption & VPN if you're in a conservative area. Be smart. Do it right. It's not too late. We lost a battle, not a war. We fought for these laws before & won. We can do it again & this time make it stick.